Smart building trends: Predictions for what’s to come

Franco Castaldini, ThoughtWire, rounds up the smart building trends to look out for.

It’s an exciting time to consider what the future has in store for smart buildings. With the industry rapidly changing, things will no doubt continue to heat up in the coming year.

Here are the three trends that we, at ThoughtWire, predict are on the horizon for 2019:

1. We’ll see more experimentation in the use of smart workspaces

Ideas around the way we work have evolved dramatically in recent years.

With more remote, digitally enabled work, and flexible working options, unique workspaces will continue to emerge in 2019 – and probably at a faster pace – to accommodate these ways of working.

2019 will see tech giants in Silicon Valley lead the charge on the quest to test spaces that best adapt to their workers’ changing priorities and needs.

Central to this will be the idea of experimentation. 2019 will see tech giants in Silicon Valley lead the charge on the quest to test spaces that best adapt to their workers’ changing priorities and needs. Out of this experimentation, we’ll see which smart applications work and which fall short of the task.

Owners and operators of buildings can learn valuable lessons from these tech companies, adapting technology that has been road tested and exploring how smart applications give everyone greater visibility into a building’s operations.

2. IoT platforms that drive results will move beyond the trough of disillusionment

When we look at Gartner’s Hype Cycle, it’s clear that IoT platforms have landed squarely in the trough of disillusionment.

In order to move beyond it, the next five years will need to offer up evidence that IoT provides clear value and solid return on investment. That means that organisations will focus on data and tangible outcomes enabled by IoT platforms, with a focus on driving and quantifying results.

This will happen first in the commercial real estate space, where large-scale implementation of IoT applications will be used to automate tasks.

In fact, Harbor Research has noted four critical needs for IoT platforms as they evolve in 2019 and beyond, including:

Simultaneous and asynchronous action on any type of information from any device, storage or streaming source

Configurable software platform architecture enabling both peer-to-peer and client-server distribution of service

3. Smart buildings will extend beyond their walls to connect with smart cities

For smart cities to truly gain traction, they need to focus first on achieving wins through smaller but more impactful use cases, like improving public safety or environmental sustainability.

However, these wins can’t be achieved when working in a silo.

That means smart cities need to include smart buildings and likewise, smart buildings need to expand beyond their own walls to touch smart cities.

Smart cities need to include smart buildings and likewise, smart buildings need to expand beyond their own walls to touch smart cities.

Recently, significant advances have been made to connect built environments with the cities that surround them, particularly with sensors that connect buildings to existing infrastructure. The sharing of information between smart buildings and cities will continue to happen in 2019 at a faster pace thanks to advancements in common infrastructure, data standards and access models, and by prioritising the interests of citizens and businesses.

In the near future, smart building technology will integrate with smart city services to save lives by automatically updating first responders on security lockdowns, building fires and medical emergencies.